Re: Article: How good is our genome?

From: Guy Hoelzer (hoelzer_at_unr.edu)
Date: 07/01/04 

Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 15:46:21 +0000 (UTC)

in article cbumkd$1qlo$1@darwin.ediacara.org, ekurtz99@WhoKnowsWhere.com at
ekurtz99@WhoKnowsWhere.com wrote on 6/30/04 8:35 AM:

> Robert Karl Stonjek wrote:
>> How good is our genome?
>>
>> Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences
>> fobike://rsl/rtb
>> January 29, 2004, vol. 359, no. 1441, pp. 95-98(4)
>> l/rtb/2004/00000359/00001441
>> Weill J-C.[1]; Radman M.[1]
>>
>> [1] Faculte de Medecine Necker Enfants-Malades, Université de Paris-V,
>> Paris, France
>>
>> Abstract:
>> Our genome has evolved to perpetuate itself through the maintenance of the
>> species via an uninterrupted chain of reproductive somas.
>
> The genome is an entity capable of looking to the future?

Interestingly, the answer is yes. That is why natural selection is able to
cause adaptive genomic evolution. The mechanisms of genetics result in the
encoding of the past into the genome, which effectively allows it to predict
the future. If the past, or memories thereof, was too poor at predicting
the future, then heritable changes within populations in response to natural
selection would not result in adaptive evolution. It would just amplify the
noise.
 
>> Accordingly,
>> evolution is not concerned with diseases occurring after the soma's
>> reproductive stage.
>
> There is no such person as "evolution". Attributing agency to a
> completely natural process causes no end of confusion, especially among
> the scientifically uninformed, eg journalists.

I don't disagree with your plea for careful wording, but it does seem a bit
like quibbling here. You could, for example, think of evolution as a
process, rather than merely a pattern (outcome of processes). Dissipative
processes, like convection (and I argue evolution), are generally
indistinguishable from their entified dynamical structures (e.g., a
convection cell). Such process/structures can have agency, and one might
argue that evolution/bioshpere is such a process structure.
 
>> Following Richard Dawkins, we would like to reassert
>> that we indeed live as disposable somas, slaves of our germline genome, but
>> could soon start rebelling against such slavery.
>
> If the authors are infatuated with metaphors, they should become poets
> in their spare time, and restrict themselves to technical language when
> writing about biology.
>
>> Cancer and its relation to
>> the TP53 gene may offer a paradigmatic example. The observation that the
>> latency period in cancer can be prolonged in mice by increasing the number
>> of TP53 genes in their genome, suggests that sooner or later we will have to
>> address the question of heritable disease avoidance via the manipulation of
>> the human germline.
>
> True; but new?

Regards,

Guy

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Sexes
    ... but it has nothing to do with evolution. ... Try using the UCSC Genome browser and comparing ... our discussion here - hits for homologous genes in other species. ... insist that science must obtain? ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Sexes
    ... but it has nothing to do with evolution. ... Try using the UCSC Genome browser and comparing ... our discussion here - hits for homologous genes in other species. ... insist that science must obtain? ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The Reasonable Minority
    ... Does Shapiro deny that evolution occurs? ... Transposable Elements & Genome Evolution, Kluwer, ... experimental and computational analysis of a sea urchin gene. ... Current Opinion in Genetics & Development5,717-724. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Some stuff on Baldwin Effect
    ... evolution with natural selection as an exception based on the Baldwin ... "Adaptive evolution may not require neither natural ... irreversible on the level of genome without the difference in the ... the level of whole genome and a look to the organism as a ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Sexes
    ... but it has nothing to do with evolution. ... Try using the UCSC Genome browser and comparing ... our discussion here - hits for homologous genes in other species. ... insist that science must obtain? ...
    (talk.origins)